


A New World Waits For My Reply

by Daelin



Series: Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo [9]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Hunger Games (Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Darcy Lewis Crossover Bingo, F/M, Panem, Post-War, Pre-Epilogue Mockingjay, President Paylor - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-25
Updated: 2016-03-25
Packaged: 2018-05-28 21:52:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,516
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6346759
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daelin/pseuds/Daelin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After overturning the government, what is there for the people to do? </p><p>Finally become themselves. </p><p>President Paylor thinks that it's probably a good idea to gather some bright minds to work on this new world.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A New World Waits For My Reply

**Author's Note:**

> DLCB - Day 10 - #22 - Hunger Games
> 
> Title from "Opening: The New World" from Songs For A New World.

Ian had tried to get Darcy to leave with him. “Why stay here, DeeDee?” he'd asked earnestly, using a childhood nickname she'd never managed to get him to leave be. It was the only remnant of her mother she had left, a warm, kind mother before she had volunteered to train with the Peacekeepers. Granted, it had made the family proud, but it had broken Darcy.

Nobody wants the broken children, nobody in District 2.

But childhood was long behind, and her sob story of an existence was just a story, one so much like many others. And this, this was past the rebellion, past Coin's assassination, and the beginning of President Paylor's attempt to create a democracy. For the first time, the fences were off for good. They could leave, if they wanted. See the famous Capitol. Or, in Ian's case, go South, to the farms. He had never quite been suited to The Nut. Darcy gave him his good-bye, and sent him off.

She never told him why she'd stayed. He needn't have bothered asking.

Jane was here. District 2 was the last place Thor had been before he'd been taken by the Games, and Jane would never leave. So, neither would Darcy. Jane and her father Erik had taken Darcy in, and with Erik long since succumb to a disease they could not afford the cure for, Jane would have been all alone if Darcy left.

So, Darcy stayed.

* * *

 

One of the first things that impressed upon Darcy the inherent desire-to-do-good of the new government was their willingness to let the people work. Yes, many continued the mining they were used to, or training for the newly-christened “Police.” But some had skills that lay outside the District they were born in. While in the outlying Districts these skills might have been stamped out, here in District 2, such skills were… maybe not encouraged, but not discouraged, either. This close to the Capitol, with loyal subjects, innovation was a wonderment not easily discarded. Thus, there was Jane. Erik had been a wonder on the scientific front, although Panem may never have known; but thanks to his legacy of tiny, handwritten notes squeezed in the margins of books that were technically never allowed to be in his possession, and the ferocity and brains of Jane, these works might actually have a change in this new world order.

Jane was scribbling at her desk, painstakingly transcribing Erik's notes into a more legible form, on the new computers they were allowed to have. Darcy bit her tongue at Jane's rather slow pace of typing; Darcy herself had discovered she liked these computers, not to mention the ease at which things could be programmed to work. No wonder the Capitol hadn't allowed such things for personal use. While Jane transcribed, Darcy organized their living-room-turned-lab-space. A clearing throat drew her attention to the door.

A man in a rather official looking uniform stood there, and Darcy immediately stepped in his line of sight to Jane. “Excuse me?” she directed at him, half-question, half-accusation.

“Are you Jocasta?” he asked. He was handsome, and tall, broad in the shoulder. He was the look of a man who had seen war, for all that he was probably close to Darcy's own age.

War did funny things to a body.

“I might be,” Darcy told him. “Depends who's looking.”

The man cracked a grin that definitely made him even more attractive, which wasn't fair at all. “I'm sorry, my mother would be ashamed at my manners. I'm Gale Hawthorne, and I'm under advisement of the President that I could find Jocasta here.”

Darcy raised her eyebrows. “I'm not sure I'm comfortable that the President is looking for her, even though I know in reality the government knows where most of us are within a few feet at any time. Why?”

The man, Gale, raised his hands to the breast pocket of his suit. “I have an invitation to the Capitol. The President is hosting a summit – a meeting of the brightest minds. To help shape the future.”

“That… seems promising. I am Delphina, by the way,” Darcy introduced herself finally, giving her formal name. It was a common practice in their District to follow a Greco-Roman naming tradition, as a sign of strength of times long gone by. However, the sentimental families often gave their children an informal name, closely guarded by the family and dear friends. It was sometimes the only thing they had that was their own. Darcy did not give hers away easily, though Jane was pretty trusting. She wanted to trust this new President Paylor. So did Darcy; but Darcy wanted to know more about how the President was going to make this democratic system work. Maybe she was a little cynical.

“Jocasta!” she called out, turning to face the room and Jane's back. Jane jerked in her chair and whipped her head around, wide-eyed. It was the calling of her formal name. “We have a visitor, and an invitation to the Capitol.”

“WHAT?!” Jane all but shrieked, launching from her chair to latch onto Darcy. She looked at Gale, a stranger to her. “Really?”

Gale nodded, and held out a small computer form. A tablet. “Yes, ma'am. Here-” and he touched the screen, and there was President Paylor's form in miniature holo, giving them a formal invitation.

Jane had stars in her eyes. “A summit! I can meet others, and – there are libraries! Holo libraries!” Then she stopped still, breathless. “I wonder if we could start a University. Capitol University. We could teach. Teach each other. Everything.” The look she gave to Darcy had tears in the corners. They were both of ecstasy and fear – Darcy knew. Thor was here, and Jane wanted to stay. But, Jane could fulfill more than her wildest dreams in the Capitol. Darcy knew her sister was destined for better than the mines in the mountains.

“It'll be fun,” she promised Jane, her smile a little sharp-edged with her own trepidation. She turned back to Gale, who offered her the tablet. She waved it towards Jane, who took it gingerly, with much care.

“Let's talk shop, yes?” Darcy said. “We need to know when, and where, and what we'll need, and what we can take with us...”

Gale walked them through what they could take – basically, if they wanted, everything they owned – and they had two months to prepare, though they could leave in a fortnight if they wished, District 2 being so close to the Capitol. Jane was beside herself, dreams of learning bringing a flush to her cheeks. Darcy finally sent her to sit down, and walked Gale out of their tiny house.

“Why did they send you?” she asked Gale, glancing at him out of the corner of her eye.

He didn't look down at her, but did smirk. “Direct little thing, aren't you?”

That stopped her. “I'm not a thing. I have a name,” she said, coldly.

“I know. Delphina.” He had turned to face her, meeting her eyes. “I didn't mean to offend. I come from – I was born in District 12, in the Seam. Mines. We were things. I'm sorry.” He raked his hand through his hair, for the first time looking more like a boy her age. “I was trying to flirt. I clearly need some help.”

Darcy looked at him a long moment. She may not trust easily, but she was an excellent judge of character, and Gale was passing steady in her presence; a good, solid man, trustworthy, full of duty, and necessity. Maybe a little hardened, but they all had to be. “I dunno,” she said finally, softer again, her full mouth widening into a smile. “Maybe it needs some work, but it's doing alright. Stick around, and you could learn a few things.”

His smirk was back, his eyes crinkling at the sides. “From you, I presume?”

“Pah! No, I'll give you to the midwives. They'll sort you out.”

For a moment his look was horror, and then it gave way to a chuckle, and then to full on belly-laughter. Darcy laughed too. When their laughter had finally died down, Gale looked down at her, and then slowly – hesitantly – reached out a hand to tuck a strand of wavy hair behind her ear. He looked oddly vulnerable.

“It's Darcy,” she said, apropos of nothing. His quizzical look led her to continue, “My name. It's Darcy.”

His brow furrowed, then cleared. “I .. worked with someone from District 2. He said sometimes, naming conventions were not what they seemed. You were named to please the Capitol?”

Darcy nodded. “Yes. Most are. I will let Jocasta tell hers, if she wishes; she probably will. She trusts.”

Gale didn't need to say anything; he understood.

To be trusted was a weighty responsibility he knew well; to be trusting required a goodly amount of courage.

“I must also take a missive to District 3. If I'm not called assigned after, can I visit you in the Capitol?”

“I would like that.”

“Then, until we meet again, Darcy.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know.
> 
> The naming convention thing, idk. I felt I wanted to stay true to the District, without losing the characters as we know them (by name) completely. Why District 2? Because Gale ends up living there. Why? Because Darcy's from there, of course. Duh. 
> 
> God, my brain.


End file.
